Most common belief is the MEP modeling and clash detection is the toughest part of the job!

True! It is quite difficult and important but not the most challenging part.

Almost every BIM service provider or company using BIM has good skills and experience with MEP Modeling. I mean it is not a big deal, it is manageable!

The most challenging part for us was the medical equipment! In many meetings with the clients, the first thing they asked us was if we can manage medical equipment! That was the differentiator!

Why?

First of all, most of the BIM software does not have library for Medical Equipment! Except ArchiCAD of course;)) These things looks unimportant for engineers who are new to BIM but actually those are the main criterias that differentiates a mature BIM tool then others.

In order to say yes, you should be crazy or extremely hard working. (probably crazy! :))
Some of these medical equipments look like "aliens" with all kinds of strange geometries:)) For example this one.

If I recall correctly, it was an equipment called "finisher" located in the laundry. As you see, it is a nightmare to model this strange thing.

What to do now?

We contacted the manufacturer and asked for the 3D Model. They normally have 3D models for their production and they are willing to provide it to you since it means "Sales" for them.

They send it in 3D DWG file format!

We directly converted it to GDL and guess what happened?

The files size of the object was close to the files size of the total hospital model:)))

After a short period of depression, we decided to open it in 3DMAX and reduce the polygon numbers, convert to 3DS file format and then take into ArchiCAD.

That was pretty successful and we found many major clashes!

As a result, we were happy, our client was happy and their client was also happy:)))

Monday, February 27, 2012

This is the latest whitepaper prepared by Graphisoft US team! I truly enjoy reading their blog and I find US market quite similar to Middle East in terms of the size of companies as well as the amount of multidisciplinary firms.

If you are planning to implement BIM and you are not certain about how to do it, this whitepaper is a great source for you.

Here comes a short summary:

"From the company that brought you – Construction Computing Magazine’s 2011 BIM Product of the Year ArchiCAD 15 – the “Get There Faster with ArchiCAD”
whitepaper examines five critical areas to explore before making your
final BIM software selection. This paper was written with the sole
purpose of providing accurate, reliable information about critical
issues related to BIM and what ArchiCAD with advanced technology such as
the GRAPHISOFT BIM Server(tm) provide as an answer to address these
issues. We want to teach and educate in an effort to help architects
make informed technology decisions.The whitepaper shares expertise and experience from six design leaders as they describe how ArchiCAD:

Improves profitability

Enables agile and competitive workflow

Provides fast, real-time collaboration

Is easy-to-learn and simplifies the 3D workflow

Makes great use of any computing power

Keeps IT costs low

Is a secure and proven BIM product

This document highlights what makes ArchiCAD BIM different than other
BIM solutions. Find out why ArchiCAD, developed by architects for
architects, is the most workable solution for today’s AEC professionals.Download the white paper here. "

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Let me give you some background information before going into the discussion. Especially in the UAE almost all the large consultants are already using BIM. Of course with different level of expertise and success. However compared to the contractors, consultants are BIM gurus:)

The consultant educates the client about BIM and recommends to mandate BIM usage in the tender. Client is happy because he thinks he already have the BIM Model so the contractor will only operate it.

The consultant hands over a LOD 300 model with no/limited liability.

The party starts here!

Contractor believes that he can use consultant's model for shop drawings, quantities, cost planning, scheduling etc.

I have experienced this myself. When we told the contractor that the model coming from consultant can not be used as it is, they do not want to believe and most of the time they do not believe.

Now, let's imagine a project in which the design consultant hands over a LOD 300 BIM Model. (If you are not familiar with LOD please check James Van's blog! It is pretty cool)

First of all, we should define what is LOD 300.

"LOD 300 - Model elements are suitable for the generation of traditional construction documents and shop drawings. As such, analysis and simulation is authorized for detailed elements and systems."

When a contractor reads the above statement, he is quite sure that the model will work fine for him. Unfortunately what a consultant understands from "shop drawings" is slightly different than contractor's understanding.

A basic example. A consultant can use a multi-story column might work fine for the shop drawings of a consultant but it should be from slab top to slab bottom in contractors model.

The consultant does not care about the concrete grades but for contractor it is very important.

Even for design coordination! Many people believes that clash detection within a LOD 300 model is perfect. But not really! In a complex project, the slight difference on the radius of the bend might create a clash in LOD 400 model where LOD 300 is absolutely ok!

What do we usually recommend for contractors?
If the consultant does not accept "full" liability on the model, do not rely on it.

Freeze the consultant's design model as a reference model and create your own. You might create your own model by just modifying and developing the design model but we saw cases in which it is much easier to create the model from scratch. So evaluate both options.

In the Middle East, majority of the companies are multi-discipline which means they have their own architectural, structural and MEP teams. For them ArchiCAD without MEP modeler is like Browni without ice cream. (another great comparison from me :)))

When I say majority of the companies, I am not trying to say majority of the big companies. Here, even a 5 men office would have 3 architects, 1 structural engineer and 1 MEP engineer.

What about the "Wow"s it get during the presentations?

No wow at all because people are expecting it as a default part of a BIM solution:))

Well this is the only add-on which has a balance of "wow"s and sales.
People love it when they see the presentation! Especially on iPad! Being able to navigate in the BIM Model without any training of these complicated BIM Software is a miracle for the managers as well as the project owners.

This is the strangest add-on in terms of the balance of "wow"s and sales.

Since Sustainability is "the topic" in the Middle East, EcoDesigner is the start of the meetings. Everybody is extremely impressed with the fact it runs within the BIM Software and no export/import is required. You can get your energy analysis results any time.

But when it comes to sales results, we are not very happy.

As everything related to sustainability, EcoDesigner is an add-on nice to talk about but not apply in your projects.

Unfortunately in the Middle East there are only few companies who really wants to design sustainable buildings. Most of them do not pay any attention unless it is mandated in the project. Even it is mandated, then they just fill few Excel sheets in the late stages of the project where all the design decisions are already made. Yes, this is a sad story :(

Monday, February 20, 2012

Before going into the details of tonight's programme, let me tell you more about BIM User Group Meetings in general.

First of all, everyone is welcomed tot he BIM User Group Meetings. No membership is required although it is organized by Building Smart Middle East, North Africa and India.

The discussions are usually more on the process side of BIM rather than the tiny little features of BIM software.

What about tonight? What are we going to discuss?

It's a quite interesting one! Model Authorship!

This is one of the subjects that almost everyone in the Middle East is confused about. The attendees will be from different project parties, such as consultants, contractors, BIM service providers and owners.

It would be nice to hear different people's opinion!

If you are interested, please come and join us!

Details of the event is as following:

Date: Monday 20th February, 2012Time: 6-7:30pm,Location: AUD, Architecture Faculty, Room A208 (first floor) - DubaiTheme: Issues of model authorshipDescription:
Following on from some excellent discussion at the previous user group meeting, this session will be an open forum to discuss issues of model authorship. We will explore questions of who should own, pay for and be liable for models in an integrated construction project, and how this can be managed .

Because they can get competitive prices for each phase of the project. First they let the consultants to fight for getting the design job, decrease their profit especially on these days of recession.

Then comes the second part. Now it's contractors turn to bid.

Seems like a smart method for the owner.

Is it?

Each party is responsible for a certain task in the project. For instance an architect is involved in the design part only. He will try to avoid any liability for the later stages of the project. He may not include enough details in the drawings to facilitate accurate bids in the tender.

But even this requires, early involvement of the contractor in the project and also very good relations between the project parties.

What about Design-Build?

This is my favorite!

In the Middle East contractors get involved with both types of contracts. When a contractor decides to implement BIM into their organization and ask our advise for the pilot project, we always recommend to start with a Design-Build project.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

1- During the development of BIM Server, I had the opportunity to see the development team, the amount of work put into it's development, the cautiousness for the safety of data. I think it had the longest beta testing period ever. Users were dying to get the BIM Server as soon as possible but Graphisoft refused to release it until they are 100% sure that it works perfectly.

2- IT IS FAST!

3- IT IS PROBLEM FREE! Believe me or not, we are providing more technical support on the Network Dongle sharing then BIM Server:))

4- IT IS USER FRIENDLY! This is very important. You spend 6-8 hours of your time on this software and you would hate your life it wasn't user friendly.

5- Internal Messaging System! Off this is one of my favorites. In one of our early implementations we were using it even for deciding what to eat:))

In 2009, when Graphisoft released it, I was expecting the competition to come up with a similiar solution which utilizes Delta Server technology within 2-3 years.

Monday, February 13, 2012

These are the built up areas of some of the projects that BIMES have provided BIM services within last year.

In the rest of the world, these size of projects are quite rare. Only few "big boys" get the opportunity of getting involved in them.

However in the Middle East, these are regular numbers. As an architect / engineer, you deal with these kind of projects everyday.

The fact that ArchiCAD supports both Multi Processors and 64 bit is an extremely important factor here. The video below explains how these technologies improve your productivity.

I have no idea how people are investing in BIM software which does not support Multi Processing fully. It is like buying a Lada and racing against Ferrari. (I hope this is a good example. I do not understand much about cars :)

If your BIM Software does not take advantage of the latest technology of the available hardware, how can you commit to Billion Dollar projects?

I saw many companies, doing a basic model just for design coordination and than switching to 2D CAD for shop drawings. Is this real BIM?

NOT AT ALL!

Thanks to the great development team behind ArchiCAD, we do not make such "Mickey Mouse" business!

5 minutes later, Jothi received another call saying it did not work. We requested text file to check and noticed that the problem is very very simple but hard to see.

The number of digits decreased after a certain point and ArchiCAD did not read the remaining part. So to fix it, we added "0" to the beginning of each new number.

Later we noticed that this numbering system also depends on the equipment that the surveyor uses. We received the text file of the same site from a different surveyor company and that did not have the same digit problem at all.

Anyway, although it was a small one it still took us 2 hours to find the problem.

After solving this issue, the team finished their proposal for the master planning within 2 days! Yes, within 2 days!

A couple of days later, I came across with their CEO and he said "Diyane, now I truly believe in BIM. Our BIM team finished their proposal for Iraq project in 2 days. It would take 2 weeks if I gave that job to the other teams working traditionally!"

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The announcement of BIMx for iPad & iPhone took place during this event! We have introduced BIMx just for 15 Minutes before the break and provided the password of the Wifi!

Every single person in the conference who had iPhone, downloaded BIMx right there! They were playing with it like kids. Trying with the 3D glasses, asking us questions...

After the conference, all the "thank you" emails we received were talking about BIMx as well.

Especially in the Middle East, BIM is treated as some sort of "rocket science". Most people are scared of it's complexity.

I believe BIMx is the tool which made people more confident. They were able to "explore" the alien "BIM" within their palms.

I am also happy that there are other solutions in the market that are trying to bring BIM to the hands of non-experts. It's very good of them to try but of course our thanks goes to Graphisoft for actually achieving it:)